DUTY’S PATH
Delight Instead of Drudgery
Part 1

“I choose the path of faithfulness; I am committed to your regulations”
(Psalm 119:30 (NET).

Daily commitment, faithfulness, and duty? They don’t sound like exciting words, do they? We’d rather do something more exciting! Read a book! Watch a movie!

However, duty is part of life. The Knox translation of the above Scripture says: “Duty’s path my choice.” We must choose the way of duty, even when we don’t feel like it. It reminds me of the quote, if I can remember it correctly: “It takes character to cope with life when duty rather than pleasure is the sustaining force.”

The dictionary meaning of duty is:

Something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation,

the binding or obligatory force of something that is morally or legally right,

an action or function required by a person's position or occupation,

the respectful and obedient conduct due a parent, superior, elder, etc.

an act or expression of respect.

a task or chore that a person is expected to perform.

If God has blessed us with children, our No. 1 occupation is motherhood and the management of the home. It takes a life of duty to keep a home running smoothly. Sometimes we may look upon it as duty and our thoughts spiral down to drudgery.

However, duty can be drudgery or delight depending to our attitude. We not only choose duty because it is the right thing to do, but we choose our attitude. When we choose and confess that every task in our homes—menial or creative—are a delight, they become a delight.

Make duty your delight and you will love every moment in your home. Sing while you work. Smile as you work. Praise the Lord as you work. Everything depends on what we choose to do.

The Greek word for duty in the New Testament is opheilo and means “to owe, to be morally obligated, pay the debt, express human and ethical responsibility, to fall in duty, it’s a must.”

It’s good to remind ourselves of duty in a general way, but the Bible mentions some specific things that are our duty. Therefore , I think we should look at them, don’t you?

1. SEXUAL INTERCOURSE FOR MARRIED COUPLES

Is this a duty? When God brought the first couple together, the first thing He told them was to be “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). That’s it! God’s ultimate plan. His first description of marriage. Therefore we owe it to one another.

1 Corinthians 7:3 calls it “due benevolence.” Now that doesn’t sound very romantic, does it? The Syriac version translates it “due love.” But let’s read it from a modern version: “The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. Do not deprive each other of sexual relations . . .” (NLT).

The wonderful thing about this moral obligation in marriage is that although it’s considered a duty, God has created it to be a DELIGHT. God is amazing. Proverbs 5:19 describes it as “ravishing.” The full meaning of the Hebrew word is to be “enraptured, intoxicated, transported with delight, captivated, entranced, steal away the senses.” How often should this happen? This Scripture tell us “at all times” and “always.” Look it up and read it again.

There may be times in your marriage when you may not experience it as a delight. That’s when you move into “duty” mode. As you are faithful to do your duty, delight will come rolling back to you. It’s a divine law. It’s like the ebb and flow of the tide. Sometimes the tide goes out, but it is a universal law that tide always comes flowing in again.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Dear Father. Please help me to be faithful to do what is right and what is required of me. Please save me from getting into the pit of drudgery but to see every task as a sacred duty. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I choose the way of duty, but I choose to do it with joy and exuberance.

P.S. Read the Old Testament Scriptures about sexual duty: Genesis 38:8; Exodus 21:10; and Deuteronomy 25:5, 7.

WALK THROUGH THE LAND
Part 2

“I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land,
and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me”
(Joshua 18:4).

Today we look at the next two instructions Joshua gave for possessing the land.

2. GO THROUGH THE LAND (Joshua 18: 4, 8, 9).

We don’t arise to hang around the edges of the land. We begin walking through. God wants us to know what He has given to us. We cannot possess and enjoy what we don’t know we have.

A New Zealand friend told me of her brother who purchased land which he trusted would help to provide for his family. However, the land wasn’t good enough and he ended up using it as a hobby farm. After many years he decided to sell, when to his astonishment, he found that he owned another 10 acres of lovely fertile land that would have been perfect to farm and provide for his family. All those years he missed out on his own land because he didn’t know he had it. He didn’t possess it because he didn’t know about it.

This is what happens with much of the land of God’s Word. Many Christians don’t even know one-tenth of what God has provided for them. Because they don’t know about it, they don’t walk in it. We all fall short, don’t we?

It is a life-time journey. There is more in God’s Word for us than we can ever fathom. Colossians 2:3 says: “In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” In Christ and in His Word are hid ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. But we’ve got to dig for them. Gold and great treasures don’t lie on the surface.

3. DESCRIBE THE LAND (Joshua 18:4, 6, 8, 9).

The third instruction was to write a description of the land. In these four verses Joshua uses the word  “describe” five times! It was not enough to walk through the land, they had to write about it. Not just the delightful parts, but the challenging pats too.

As you walk through the land of God’s Word each day, do you write down what you see? Do you record the revelations God gives to you? You will find that as you are faithful to write down what God gives to you; He will give you more.

Jesus said in Mark 4:24, 25 (TPT): “Be diligent to understand the meaning behind everything you hear, for as you do, more understanding will be given to you. And according to the depth of your longing to understand, much more will be added to you. For those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation. But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have!”

This is such an important thing to do as we forget so easily. I was 18 years old when I read the words in Jeremiah 30:2: “Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.” I took those words personally and have continued to write what God speaks to me ever since that day! It has been the greatest blessing of my life. .I believe that when God sees my pen and journal ready, He knows I mean business, and that I don’t what to forget what He tells me. And I certainly will forget if I don’t write it down!

The word “describe” in the Hebrew is kathab and means “to grave, to write, to record. “Did you know that it is the same word that is used of God writing the Ten Commandments”?

Exodus 24;12: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written (kathab); that thou mayest teach them.”

Exodus 31:18: “And he gave unto Moses, when he had  made an end of communing with hi upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony tables of stone, WRITTEN (kathab) WITH THE FINGER OF GOD.” Read also Exodus 32:15, 16; 34:1, 2, 27; Deuteronomy 4;13; 5:22; and 9:10; 10:4).

God not only wants to write the words He speaks to us in a book, but on our homes. Deuteronomy 6:9 and 11:20 state: “And thou shalt write (kathab) them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon thy gates.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“I thank You, Father, for the land of Your Word. I don’t want to stay near the edges. I want to walk through it. I 3 want to search for your treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Please help me to be diligent. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I’m walking through the land with my pen in hand and journal ready to write everything that God shows to me and reveals to me.

WALK THROUGH THE LAND
Part 1

“Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it:
for I will give it unto thee”
(Genesis 13:17).

In the above Scripture God tells Abram to walk through the land that He promised  to him and his descendants. When we first read a Scripture, we read it literally. This is speaking to literal person about an existing land—the land of Israel which God has given to His people as an everlasting possession.

God has also given us a land—a land of His glorious and precious Word. It is a land filled with His commandments, plans, purposes, and promises for us. 2 Peter 1:3 says: “Whereby large given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

God doesn’t want us to hang around the edges of this land, only reading our favorite passages. He wants us to walk right through it, the length and the breadth of it.

After the Israelites had conquered the land of Canaan, seven tribes had still not possessed their portions of the land. Joshua said to them in Joshua 18:3: “How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?”

I like the Knox translation: “What, still hanging back, when the land promised by the LORD God of your fathers waits for you to occupy it?” Hopefully this is not our testimony! Still hanging back when there is a whole land to be possessed? We can’t walk in the fullness of what God wants to give us unless we know His plans!

Joshua told the Israelites to pick out three men from each of the seven tribes who had not yet possessed their land. He then gave them the following instructions which are also instructions for us as we seek to possess the land God has given to us.

1. ARISE (v. 4).

We can’t possess the land of God’s great purposes and promises by having good intentions. We must arise. We must make it happen—personally and as a family. Get something of God’s Word into your soul before you face the day.

When you open your iPhone in the morning, go to the Word first. Make it a habit to NEVER open anything else, not even a Notification, until you have read a portion of God’s living Word.

Think of what is waiting you.

            “wonderful and marvelous things” (Psalm 119: 18  and 129).

            “delightful things” (Psalm 2:2; 119:16, 24, 47, 70, 77, 92, 97, 143, 174; and Jeremiah 25:16).

“daily cleansing” (John 15:3 and Ephesians 5:26).

“daily counsel” (Psalm 119:24).

            “daily comfort” (Psalm 119:50, 52, 76; and Romans 15:4).

            “daily joy” (Psalm 119:14, 92, 162; and Jeremiah 15:16).

“daily peace” (Psalm 119:165).

“daily strength” (Psalm 119:28; 116, and 117).

“daily wisdom” (Psalm 19:7 and 119:98-100).

            “daily sustenance (milk, meat, and bread)” (Job 23:12; Matthew 4:4; Hebrews 5:13, 14; and 1 Peter 2:2).

            “light and understanding” (Psalm 19:8 and 119:104, 105, 130, 144, and 169).

            “treasures worth more than gold and silver” (Psalm 12:6; 19:10; 119:72 and 127).

            “words that are sweeter than honey” (Psalm 19:10 and 119:103).

            “life-giving words” (Psalm 119:25, 50, 93, 107, 156; and John 6:63).

            “truth instead of deception” (Psalm 119:43, 142, 160; John 17:17; and 2 Timothy 2:15).

            “instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

            “exceeding great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:3).

            And even “reproof and correction” (2 Timothy 3:16). But we need this too, don’t we?

With all this wealth available for you each day, what are you waiting for? It’s time to ARISE and possess your land.

PRAYER:

“Thank You, dear Father, for Your living Word which You have written for me. Please open my eyes to behold wondrous things as I read it each day. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I’m arising each day to walk through more of the land God has given me.

ARE YOU ON THE SIDE OF TRUTH?
Part 5

“O that there were such an heart in them,
that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always,
that it might be well with them, and with their children forever”
(Deuteronomy 5:29).

1. TRUTH KEEPERS

We read so many Scriptures about keeping the truth. The Hebrew word is shamar and means “to guard, protect, watch over, take heed to, observe.” To guard that we don’t forget God’s truth, we must attend to it daily and never let it go.

            Deuteronomy 5:29 reminds us to keep God’s truth “always,” not only when it suits us.

            Deuteronomy 6:17; 11:22; and Psalm 119:4 remind us to keep God’s truth “diligently.”

            Deuteronomy 7:9 reminds us to keep God’s truth “to a thousand generations.” We must be faithful to pass it on from one generation to the next.

            Psalm 119:33 reminds us to keep God’s truth “unto the end.”

            Deuteronomy 26:6; Psalm 119:34; and 69 remind us to keep God’s truth with “all thine heart, and with all thy soul.”

            Psalm 119:44 reminds us to keep God’s truth “continually, forever and ever.”

            Psalm 119:63 and 115 remind us to be “a companion” of truth keepers. Find friends who are truth keepers. Encourage your children to look for a spouse who is a truth keeper.

            I love Isaiah 26:2 “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.” It is the nation the keeps truth that receives God’s blessings. And that consists of families that keep His truths. Oh how we need to be praying for our nation today.

2. TRUTH KNOWERS

Many Christians love to quote the familiar Scripture in John 8:32: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” However, we don’t experience real freedom until we know the truth. It’s not enough to hear it at church. We must get to know it personally and then we walk in the freedom God intends for us 

            Proverbs 22:20, 21: “Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightiest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?” Read also Psalm 119:79; Isaiah 38: 19; John 8:32; 1 Timothy 2:3, 4; and 1 John 5:20.

3. TRUTH LEARNERS

Deuteronomy 5:1: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.”

Psalm 119:7: “I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.”

            Psalm 119:71: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.”

            Psalm 119:73: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.”

4. TRUTH LOVERS

Psalm 119:127: “I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.”

Ten times the psalmist expresses His love for God’s truth: Psalm 119:47, 48, 97, 113, 119, 127, 140, 159, 163, and 167. Do we really love them as much as gold and riches? Do we spend as much time searching God’s Word as acquiring possessions?

            What is the sign of being in love? To spend every moment with the one we love. Therefore, if we truly love the truth, we will constantly and diligently search for God’s truth in His Word.

Psalm 119:167 is the psalmist’s testimony: “My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.” Is this your testimony too?

            Zechariah 8:19: “Love the truth and peace.”

5. TRUTH MEDITATORS

Eight times the psalmist talks about meditating in God’s word in Psalm 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, and 148. The word is siyach and means “to ponder, meditate, commune, and muse, but it also means to declare, speak, and to talk.” Bible meditation is not silent. Speak out and tell people about the truths on which you are meditating.

            Psalm 77:12: “I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.”

6. TRUTH OBEYERS

Truth is ineffective unless we obey it: Psalm 119:166; Galatians 3:1; 5:7; James 1:22-25; and 1 Peter 1:22.

7. TRUTH PENETRATORS

Deuteronomy 6:6, 7 (AMPC) tells us specifically how to teach God’s truth to our children: “And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be (first) in your (own) minds and hearts; (then) you shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the (minds and ) hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Are you penetrating God’s Word into your children’s minds and hearts?

8. TRUTH PERSUADERS

Paul not only shared the truth but persuaded (with convincing arguments) his hearers. To make the truth known, we must first know it. We must be ready to combat the arguments that are thrown at us. Make Apologetics an important subject in your children’s homeschool curriculum.

            Acts 19:8: Paul “went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Read also Acts 13:43; 18:4; 28:23; and 2 Corinthians 5:11.

PRAYER:

“Oh God of Truth, I want truth to be part of my life too. Help me to be a learner and meditator of Your truth so that I am ready to teach my children Your truth. I want to penetrate it into their very beings so they will never be pulled away by the deceptions of this world. Help be to be a faithful penetrator of Your truth. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I love God’s Word exceedingly. It is my daily delight.

FURTHER STUDY:

No. 23. TRUTH KEEPERS

2 Timothy 1;14 (NLT): “Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.”

You will notice how many Scriptures there are about keeping God’s truth. As you read these Scriptures, look out for ALL the blessings God gives when we observe and keep His truths and statutes. Write down the blessings and share them to your children. I want to leave some study for you too. I was amazed as I noted them, and you will be too:

Genesis 18:19; Exodus 20:5, 6; Leviticus 18:26-30; 19:37; 20:8,22; 22:31; 25:18; 26:3-13; 1 Kings 2:3; 3:14; 6:12; 8:61; 9:4-7; 11:38; 2 Kings 17:37; and 21:8.

Deuteronomy 4:2, 6, 40; 5;1, 10, 8:1; 29; 6:2, 17; 7:9, 11, 12; 8:2, 6, 11; 10:12, 13; 11:1, 8, 22; 13:4, 17, 18; 26:16-19; 27:1; 28:9, 45; 29:9; 30:10, 16; Joshua 22:5, 6; and Nehemiah 1:9.

Psalm 19:7-11; 79:6, 7; 105:43-45; 119:2, 4, 5, 8, 17, 22, 33, 34, 44, 55, 56, 57, 60, 63, 67, 69, 88, 100, 101, 106, 115, 129, 134, 136, 145, 146, 167, and 168.

Proverbs 3:1; 4:13, 20-23; 6:20-23 ; 7:1-3; 8:32, 33; 10:17; 19;16; 28:7; 29:18; Ecclesiastes 8:5; 12;13; Ezekiel 11:20; 20;19; 36:27; and 44:24.

Luke 11:28; John 8:51; 14:15, 21, 23, 24; 15:10; 1 Timothy 6:14; 1 John 2:3-5;3:24;  5:2, 3; and Revelation 22:7.

Did you know, I am now doing a podcast for you each week called FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell? I know you will be blessed and encouraged. Go to www.aboverubies.org and you’ll see the icon. Or go to http://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com